The hardest thing, I will admit, ever a man had to do is
to become a Christian, and yet it is the easiest. This seems to many to be a
paradox, but I will repeat it; it is the most difficult thing to become a
Christian, and yet it is the easiest. I have a little nephew in Chicago. When he
was three or four years of age, he threw that Bible on the floor. I think a good
deal of that Bible, and I didn't like to see this. His mother said to him,
"Go, pick up your uncle's Bible from the floor." "I won't,"
he replied. "Go and pick that Bible up directly." "I won't."
"What did you say?" asked his mother. She thought he didn't
understand. But he understood well enough, and had made up his mind that he
wouldn't. She told the boy she would have to punish him if he didn't, and then
he said he couldn't, and by-and-by he said he didn't want to. And that is the
way with the people coming to Christ. At first they say they won't, then they
can't, and then they don't want to. The mother insisted upon the boy picking up
the Bible, and he got down and put his arms around it and pretended he couldn't
lift it. He was a great, healthy boy, and he could have picked it up easily
enough. I was very anxious to see the fight carried on, because she was a young
mother, and if she didn't break that boy's will, he was going to break her heart
by-and-by. So she told him again, if he didn't pick it up, she would punish him,
and the child just picked it up. It was very easy to do it when he made up his
mind. So it is perfectly easy for men to accept the gospel. The trouble is, they
don't want to give up their will. If you want to be saved, you must just accept
that gospel; that Christ is your Savior; that He is your redeemer, and that He
has rescued you from the curse of the law. Just say, "Lord Jesus Christ, I
trust you from this hour to save me"; and the moment you take that stand,
He will put His loving arms around you and wrap about you the robe of
righteousness.